The Korea Times

Seoul shares down over 6% late Monday morning on tech slump

Korean stocks were trading more than 6 percent lower late Monday morning as investors dumped market heavyweights amid a tech slump sparked by a U.S. chip slide and concerns over a possible hawkish pivot of the U.S. Federal Reserve. The local currency was trading sharply lower against the U.S. dollar after opening at a 17-year low. After falling nearly 9 percent, the benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) had plunged 492.8 points, or 6.04 percent, to 7,667.79 as of 11:20 a.m. With the sharp fall, the Korea Exchange (KRX) had activated a circuit breaker for the KOSPI about three minutes after opening, halting trading for 20 minutes, and implemented a consecutive sell-side sidecar at around 9:34 a.m. The KRX had also issued a sell-side sidecar for the secondary KOSDAQ market about six minutes after opening, suspending trading for five minutes. The KOSPI's weak performance came as major U.S. indexes suffered sharp losses last week, fueled by semiconductor shares' biggest daily percentage drop since March 2020 and the hotter-than-expected U.S. jobs report for May, which fueled fe